Samantha Deakin chosen as new leader of Ashfield Council after former chief convicted of fraud and tax evasion

Jason Zadrozny was found guilty of nine counts of fraud and four counts of income tax evasion at Northampton Crown Court on September 21.

The 46-year-old had led the authority on behalf of the Ashfield Independents since 2018, following an earlier stint as leader in the 2000s for the Liberal Democrats.

He resigned as council leader and leader of the group just days after his conviction, but he remains as a councillor for the Larwood ward.

Coun Zadrozny attended a cabinet meeting for a matter of minutes on September 28 but failed to attend full council meeting a few hours later, where the new leader – Coun Samantha Deakin (Ash Ind) – was selected.

Coun Deakin, who had been the authority’s deputy leader and strategic housing and climate change lead, declined to speak to the media after the meeting about her appointment.

During the meeting she said: “I know people will have questions, I know people will have different views.

"I know in moments like this there can be a temptation in politics to be construed by personalities, arguments and events.

“I don’t intend to do that.

"While politics changes, the job doesn’t.

"So from now we will be out emptying all the bins, families still need homes, our streets still need to be safe, our parks still need looking after, our businesses still need supporting and our town centres still need investment.

“Every single day thousands of people still rely on this council to get on with the job, and that’s what I intend to do.”

Coun Deakin, who represents the Sutton Central & New Cross ward, was the only councillor to have been nominated for the role of leader.Coun Kier Barsby was the only member to vote against the nomination.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service first reported that he left the Ashfield Independents earlier in 2026 after accusing Coun Tom Hollis, another one of the party’s top representatives at Ashfield, of bringing the council into disrepute following a conviction for criminal damage.

Hucknall councillor Dave Shaw (Ash Ind) abstained while Reform UK councillors and supporters walked out of the meeting in protest at Coun Deakin being the only candidate, saying that she had been arrested – but not charged – as part of the investigation and that Ashfield ‘needed to turn over a new leaf’.

Zadrozny’s fraud offences involved the Ashfield Heritage Society, which received £9,100 of public money between 2018 and 2021, and the Classic Cinema Club, which received £1,200 in the same period.

The funding came from a Nottinghamshire County Council fund for good causes, but the prosecution said the 46-year-old set up the Ashfield Heritage Society as a ‘front’ to pocket money for himself.

Prosecution said it was set up because Zadrozny needed cash ‘in a hurry’ – something he denied during the trial.

Zadrozny is to be sentenced on November 27, and has been warned he is at risk of an ‘immediate custodial sentence’.